Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin's Russia

by Wendy Z. Goldman

Goldman uses cases studies of five factories in Soviet Russia during the time of terror--about 1936 to 1937--to demonstrate how quickly fear and coersion made enemies out of everyone. Not only was the party seeking out to arrest, deport, execute, certain classes of people (foreigners, engineers, intellectuals, Jews, officers, members of splinter parties ...) but it encouraged people to turn in suspected enemies--anyone who knew some one who had been singled out by the party; anyone who was related to anyone who had been singled out by the party. People turned in people because they were afraid that they would be accused of not turning in people. They turned in people who for whom they held grudges. When the party ranks and factories were decimated, the party realized people had gone to far, and so they singled out those who had ratted on the people who had already been arrested. That then pretty much took care of anyone else. Stories were fabricated and became true. Everyone had to follow one ideology or be suspect. Professing too loudly was almost as bad as not professing at all. There was no winning. Families were separate, torn apart through prison and denunciations. Communists from countries like Poland and Lithuania, came to Russia to join the party and be part of the revolution, only to be arrested as foreign spies. Russia may still be recovering from this period of terror.

Genres: History, Soviet Union, Russian History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ilya Slavutskiy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Direct sentences and quite readable given the granularity of the content. Sticks close to the sources. Stalin is mentioned only a few times in this book as it is a microhistory of five Moscow factories in 1937-38. Most of this is the intricacies of relationships, accusations, and defenses during the purges in the aforementioned setting, with the main characters generally party members in higher positions in the factories. Can be uninteresting for those looking for gory, action-packed accounts with a shadowy dictator pulling the strings, but I think it offers a nice alternative perspective to this kind of thing without taking the blame off of Stalin. An interesting way to view the purges, crisply though painstakingly (perhaps too detail driven for some) recounted.

[BVC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavoro particolare della Goldman che, a partire da una ricerca nel Moscow Communist Party archive (TsAOPIM), ricostruisce le vicende avvenute all'interno di cinque fabbriche sovietiche tra il 1937 e il 1938. La fonte principale sono i rapporti stenografici delle riunioni di Partito. Facendo uso anche delle riviste interne, è stata in grado di riprodurre un vero e proprio studio anche dei comportamenti di singoli operai, ingegneri e altri individui operanti nell'ambiente di ciascuna delle fabbriche.

[Wendelle]

A well-written documentation of 'The Great Terror' imposed by Stalin on Soviet Russia, told through local microhistories from workers, engineers, and technicians from different factories, who had to unmask and denounce 'traitors' and 'public enemies' among their friends, coworkers, families and spouses in order to survive the convulsive purges in their society. Apparently, just being a friend of a friend who knows a friend who hated Stalin is enough to get you ruined.